There and Back Again

Well, as promised, below you will find the chronicle of the moving of our shop. First, a shot of our shop how it stood more or less at the end of September:

Old Motte & Bailey

That's me in the cap moving a shelf

We opened in Oct. 2000, so our move at the end of October 2006 marked a full 6 years on Ann Street, an old but primarily office street across from the county courthouse. It took little more than a day to go from the left above to the right.

Thankfully we had help for the 2 main days we were moving - a motley but welcome assortment of friends and book comrades to take us the block or so to the new digs and to reshelve our books. The new space on N. 4th Avenue has a lot more foot traffic, wider but shallower, better lit, with a few more amenities, such as a kitchenette, great dedicated display window, and a finished basement.

The first things we moved in were the big shelves

Then the desk, and smaller shelves

Then boxes and boxes of books -

Dusting was a must -

My s.o. was also in charge of shelving, and did a fantastic job keeping the crew moving.

As the 2nd night fell, the state of things was.... in flux :

But by Wednesday, we had something that looked like a shop:

First day sales in 2000 - $24. First day sales 2006 - $650. And that is moving just 1 block away. Foot traffic is way up, as are in shop sales. But we'll see over time how things do.

I'll have more pics of the shop as we have filled it and added things to the walls in future posts.